Elie Wiesel ___________________________ Romania (1928- )


Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in Sighet, Transylvania, now a part of Romania. He was fifteen years old when he and his family were deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz. His mother and younger sister perished, his two older sisters survived. Elie and his father were later transported to Buchenwald, where his father died shortly before the camp was liberated in April 1945.

After the war, Elie Wiesel studied in Paris and later became a journalist. During an interview with the distinguished French writer, Francois Mauriac, he was persuaded to write about his experiences in the death camps. The result was his internationally acclaimed memoir, La Nuit or Night, which has since been translated into more than thirty languages.

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed Elie Wiesel as Chairman of the President's Commission on the Holocaust. In 1980 he became the Founding Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. He is also the Founding President of the Paris based Universal Academy of Cultures.

A devoted supporter of Israel, Elie Wiesel has also defended the cause of Soviet Jews, Nicaragua's Miskito Indians, Argentina's Desaparecidos, Cambodian refugees, the Kurds, victims of famine in Africa, victims of apartheid in South Africa, and victims of war in the former Yugoslavia.

Since 1976, he has been the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, where he also holds the title of University Professor. For his literary and human rights activities, he has received numerous awards including the Nobel Prize for Peace.

MAJOR WORKS:

    Night (1961)
    Dawn (1961)
    The Jews of Silence (1966)
    Four Hassidic Masters (1978)
    The Trial of Goad (1979)
    The Fifth Son (1985)
    Twilight (1968)
    The Forgotten (1992)
    All Rivers Run to the Sea (1995)


ON THE WEB:

ELIE WIESEL. Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Web site. Speeches (even a podcast) by Wiesel.

The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity The official site of Wiesel's foundation, which continues to play a leading role in global human rights initiatives.

Wiesel's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech.

"Elie Wiesel." Books and Writers. 2000 Good brief overview of his work with an excellent bibliography of his writings, as well as secondary sources. 8 April 2004 (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/wiesel.htm)

"On the Perils of Indifference." Speech by Elie Wiesel at a White House Symposium. April 12, 1999. 8 April 2004 (http://www.pbs.org/greatspeeches/timeline/e_wiesel_s1.html)

Audio Interview with Elie Wiesel. Wired for Books. Ohio University. 1988. 2001.
7 April 2004 8 April 2004 (http://www.wiredforbooks.org/eliewiesel)


ARTICLES:

 Suleiman, Susan Rubin." Problems of Memory and Factuality in Recent Holocaust Memoirs: Wilkomirski/Wiesel." Poetics Today 21.3 (Fall 2000): 543-559,
6 April 2004 (http://muse.jhu.edu.authenticate.library.duq.edu/journals/poetics_today/v021/21.3suleiman.pdf)

Popkin, Jeremy D. "Holocaust Memories, Historians' Memoirs: First-Person Narrative and the Memory of the Holocaust." History & Memory 15.1 (Spring/Summer 2003): 49-84.
6 April 2004 (http://muse.jhu.edu.authenticate.library.duq.edu/journals/history_and_memory/v015/15.1popkin.html)

Berger, Alan L. "Elie Wiesel's Memoirs: a review essay." Modern Judaism 17.3 (October 1997): 281-295. 6 April 2004 (http://muse.jhu.edu.authenticate.library.duq.edu/journals/modern_judaism/v017/17.3er_wiesel.html)